Qaim questions anti-corruption drive by FIA, NAB

Karachi
The Sindh chief minister has again taken up the issue of his government’s reservations over the Centre-run investigation and law-enforcement agencies’ crackdown on corrupt bureaucrats in the province, this time with a visiting federal minister.
Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah met Federal States and Frontier Regions Minister Lt General (retired) Abdul Qadir Baloch on Monday. The federal minister arrived in Karachi on Saturday.
Shah discussed this contentious issue as well as matters of the federal and provincial governments’ mutual interests with Baloch in the meeting.
The chief minister, in his earlier statements, had earlier described the drive of the Federal Investigation Agency, the National Accountability Bureau, and Rangers against corruption and terror financing in Sindh as the these federal agencies interference in the province’s internal matters.
His meeting with Baloch coincided with former president of Pakistan and Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari’s hard-hitting statement wherein he accused the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s federal government of repeating political vendetta that was seen in the 1990s.
Sources privy to the meeting said the arrest of former federal petroleum adviser and provincial Higher Education Commission chairman Dr Asim Hussain, who was taken into custody by Rangers in civvies on August 26, also came under discussion.
The chief minister complained that the federal agencies had carried out other similar activities and raids without informing the relevant provincial authorities.
He added that the federal agencies’ actions were in violation of the concept of provincial autonomy as enshrined in the Constitution and also hindering the functioning of the Sindh government.
The chief minister told the federal minister that the Centre should immediately take notice of the situation.
Baloch assured the provincial chief executive that he would inform the prime minister about the reservations of the PPP government in Sindh. He also promised to make efforts address this controversial issue within the ambit of the law.
The law and order situation in the province, particularly in Karachi, were also discussed.
A spokesperson for the chief minister said the issue of the registration of law-abiding Afghan refugees in the province and their repatriation to their homeland was also discussed.
They were of the view that all relevant agencies should work together for implementing a unanimously adopted policy on the issue of the refugees who had settled in the province.